Cayuga Indians reach casino deal

Two years after its land claim was dismissed, the Cayuga Indian Nation
has a deal in the works that would let the tribe open and run a Las Vegas-
style casino in the state, lawyers representing both sides said Tuesday.

In exchange, the state would rake in about $120 million a year off slot machine revenues and Cayuga and Seneca counties would share up to $15.3 million annually from casino profits, according to the proposed agreement, released to The Post-Standard Tuesday.

The deal would also limit how much sovereign tax-free land the Cayugas can hold in both counties.

"It's an opportunity for everyone to bring closure to issues that have divided the Cayuga Nation and the residents of New York state," Daniel French, a Syracuse lawyer representing the tribe, said Tuesday.

Other key points of the possible settlement include:
• The Cayugas could only build a casino in a community where it was wanted.
• The tribe would withdraw its pending land-into-federal-trust applications and agree to cap at 10,000 acres the amount of acreage it could designate as restricted-fee land -- or as sovereign and tax-free -- in its ancestral homeland around the north end of Cayuga Lake in Cayuga and Seneca counties.
• Those restricted-fee lands could comprise no more than three non-contiguous sections of property in each county and total no more than 20 percent of any municipality's land base.Two-thirds of that land would be in Cayuga County, the remaining one-third in Seneca County.
• The tribe would pay taxes on any property that it does not designate as restricted-fee lands.
• The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma would be prohibited from having a casino or holding any sovereign land in the state. For years, the Oklahoma tribe has been jockeying for a casino in the state and most recently targeted Auburn as a host site for building a $400 million casino and resort.

The proposed settlement needs to be approved by the state and federal governments and by both counties, which could prove problematic because many elected officials in both counties have long opposed the concept of Indian tribes holding sovereign land.

Reaching agreement, however, would finally resolve the counties' chief concern over how much sovereign land the tribe can acquire in both counties and the deal would pave the way for the tribe to gain economic prosperity with a Class III gaming hall with slot machines.

For a full report on the settlement, see Scott Rapp's story in Wednesday's Post-Standard.